Ask the Ethics
Guy: ETHICS
QUIZ - Results
By Bruce Weinstein, Ph.D.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
July 31, 2006
True or false?
1. Ethical principles vary from religion to religion.
Answer: FALSE.
The five fundamental ethical principles are:
1. Do no harm
2. Make things better
3. Respect others
4. Be fair
5. Be loving
These are the bedrock of every religious tradition and spiritual belief
system. Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Zoroaster,
Shintoism and others exhort their followers to live according to these
principles. The principles may be expressed differently, and how they
were revealed to humanity varies, but the concepts themselves are
identical across faiths. For more on this, see Jeffrey Moses, "Oneness:
Great Principles Shared by All Religions, Revised and Expanded Edition"
(New York: Ballantine Books, 2002).
It is not a particular religion's fault if people distort these
principles to serve their own ends.
2. What is right in one part of the world might not be right in another
part.
Answer: FALSE
What people believe to be right may differ from country to country, but
this does not mean that what actually IS right differs. For example, in
some countries, torture is a common practice, but that doesn't make it
right.
Sociology, anthropology, or psychology give accounts of what people
believe is right and wrong, and why. Ethics attempts to discover what
IS right and wrong, regardless of what happens to be an accepted
practice. The claim that ethical standards can legitimately vary from
culture to culture is difficult to support with reasoned argument.
3. Ethical principles change over time.
Answer: FALSE. The five ethical principles above have existed since the
beginning of civilization and will remain so until its end. To suggest
otherwise is to subvert the very notion of ethical standards.
4. Being honest is the most important ethical rule of all.
Answer: FALSE. In some situations, rare though they may be, other
ethical obligations take precedence over the duty to tell the truth.
For example, during World War II, courageous men and women in Europe
who hid Jews from the Nazis had to lie to the Gestapo to save innocent
human lives, and this was the right thing to do. Of course, most of us
do not find ourselves in such dire circumstances, and the challenge in
living an ethical life is to find a way to honor all of our ethical
responsibilities in every encounter we have with others. In most cases,
it is possible to do so.
5. Sometimes, one not only has a right not to keep private things
private; one has a duty not to do so.
Answer: TRUE. As with the example of lying in question No. 4, the duty
to maintain confidentiality is not an absolute moral obligation. When a
patient tells his psychiatrist that he intends to commit murder, the
psychiatrist not only has a right not to keep this information to
herself, she has a duty not to do so. Again, however, we ought to take
the rule of confidentiality seriously, and only extreme circumstances
justify overriding it.
6. Avoiding harm is a moral imperative, but being loving is not
ethically required.
Answer: TRUE. Whatever a person's relationship is to you - friend,
co-worker, family member, stranger - you have a duty not to harm him or
her. Being loving, kind, or compassionate, however, might be better
viewed as ideals to which we should aspire, rather than as principles
of duty. If you fail to show your loving side to your nasty neighbor, a
grouchy co-worker, or the dozens of people you encounter on public
transportation, are you acting unethically?
No, you aren't. You might not be expressing the deepest aspects of your
humanity, and you may be depriving yourself of rich and rewarding
relationships, but you are not in the wrong. Yes, you should love your
spouse, your children, and your oldest and dearest friends, but the
same cannot be said of your relationships with those outside of your
immediate circle.
The above point may reveal a distinction between what your faith asks
of you, and what secular society may reasonably demand from you. For
example, as a Christian, you might say, "I am to love everyone, and to
do anything less means that I am not honoring my faith." That is a
praiseworthy way to view your relationship to humanity, and others
would do well to follow in your footsteps. However, you could hardly
fault someone else who does not live up to this noble standard of
conduct.
7. People often disagree about what is most important in life.
Answer: TRUE. However, this is a sociological fact, and it says nothing
about what ought to constitute the good life. Even if most of the
people you encounter believe that acquiring wealth is their primary
objective, it does not follow that becoming rich is a worthwhile goal.
If we dig more deeply, we may find that what people are actually
looking for, whether they recognize it or not, is happiness, not
wealth, fame, or other commonly held goals. A person who says, "What I
want in life is to be famous" is really saying, "I believe that being
famous will make me happy." Of course, people who are famous often
report that fame did not bring them happiness; it just brought more
problems. The same is true of wealth. Happiness, not in the fleeting
sense of feeling satisfied, but in the deeper sense of having all of
the things that make life meaningful, not the least of which is
enriching the lives of others, is the true goal of being human in
society.
The answers to the remaining three questions in last week's quiz will
be presented in the next column. Stay tuned!
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ABOUT THE ETHICS GUY
Bruce Weinstein received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from
Swarthmore College, a doctorate in philosophy and bioethics from
Georgetown University, and a certificate in film production from New
York University. He appears as an ethics analyst from time to time on
CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" and other national television news
programs. Submit questions to: Bruce@TheEthicsGuy.com.
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© 2006, Bruce Weinstein, Ph.D